California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of March 1, 2013
Dignity Health, San Francisco
Dignity Health plans to continue building a 28-acre medical center in Elk Grove, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
Last fall, the health system opened a $35 million medical plaza, the first phase of the project.
Dignity seeks to continue the initiative by building a six-story, 330-bed hospital, a five-level parking garage and another medical office building on the campus (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 2/13).
Eastern Plumas Health Care, Portola
Eastern Plumas Health Care might face closure this year because of a 25% reduction in total Medi-Cal reimbursements, according to administrator Tom Hayes, the Sacramento Bee reports. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
According to Hayes, the hospital expects to face a $1.3 million annual reduction resulting from federal Medicaid cuts and also must repay $2.4 million to the state for funds issued retroactive to 2011, when health care providers filed an injunction to block state Medi-Cal cuts.
He said, "If the California Department of Health Care Services requires us to pay this amount, it will be the demise of not only our skilled nursing facility but the entire organization" (Little, Sacramento Bee, 2/27).
Emanuel Medical Center, Turlock
Tenet Healthcare has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, Becker's Hospital Review reports.
Although financial terms of the agreement were not released, the deal stipulates that Emanuel would remain affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church and join Dallas-based Tenet's 49-hospital system.
Tenet officials expect the acquisition to close during the second quarter of 2013 (McLaughlin, Becker's Hospital Review, 2/21).
Loma Linda University Health
Union Bank has donated $25,000 to Loma Linda University Health to boost a project to build an LLUH campus in San Bernardino, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
The plan includes building clinical and educational facilities on the 7.25-acre plot in downtown San Bernardino. Plans for the project will be finalized in the coming months (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 2/26).
Palomar Health Downtown Campus, Escondido
Last week, Palomar Health officials relicensed an old emergency department at Palomar Health Downtown Campus in Escondido, U-T San Diego reports.
In August 2012, emergency services were discontinued at the facility and moved to the new Palomar Medical Center on Citracado Parkway.
However, an increase in patient demand for emergency services has prompted officials to reopen the ED for patients with less severe injuries who do not want to travel across town to the new hospital (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 2/26).
Palomar Medical Center, Escondido
Recently, Palomar Medical Center patients began receiving wearable electronic devices that wirelessly transmit vital signs to nurses and physicians, U-T San Diego reports.
The hospital began using the ViSi Mobile devices -- manufactured by San Diego's Sotera Wireless -- in early February (Fikes, U-T San Diego, 2/23). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.